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Human Identity & Interactions with Society

George Herbert Mead, Peter Berger, and Thomas Luckmann all believed that a human beingÆs identity is forged from the interactions they have with society. Mead drew a fundamental distinction between the self, which was a personÆs body and was capable of a limited form of physical intelligence, and the I and the Me that form a personÆs psychic identity. The I and the Me, in turn, were the dichotomy between an individualÆs sense of their own identity and the same individualÆs conception of their interactions with society. It was in this interaction between the I and the Me, between the individual and society, that identity is forged and actions take meaning, according to Mead. Berger and Luckmann advance a similar idea, namely that man has no real sense of self without society. According to Berger and Luckmann, men cannot exist in a vacuum, and without interactions with other human beings their lives have no meaning.

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, in their essay entitled ôSociety as a Human Product,ö expound their belief that the self is entirely wrapped up in society. According to Berger and Luckmann, ôMan's self-production is always, and of necessity, a social enterprise. Men together produce a human environment, with the totality of its socio-cultural and psychological formations.ö Luckmann and Berger go on to establish the familiar dichotomy between a person and society, but they also maintain that both are connected by the very existence of human interactions. In this sense, then, ôsocial order is a human product. Or, more precisely, an ongoing human production. It is produced by man in the course of his ongoing externalization.ö This externalization is necessary because human beings cannot exist in a vacuum, they need interactions with society in order to function. There is no meaning for humans without these interactions, just as there is no society without interaction. Berger and Luckmann believe th...

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Human Identity & Interactions with Society. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:10, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702158.html